Anthem OTS Norwegian Fjords Review, 9-3-23

[aubreyc1988]

Hey all, decided to do a review of my cruise to Norway and hope the info helps people when planning!

 

I booked this trip in April with my Royal Caribbean Casino Royal Prime Cruise Certificate. Both my husband and I are Prime with Casino Royale so we each get one free annual cruise a year of our choosing. So we chose to do Norway this year. We got two rooms. My husband put his Dad in his room as his guest, and I put my mother-in-law in my room as my guest and once we got onboard, we were just going to switch rooms at guest services. This isn't against the rules, they do allow this surprisingly but I am not complaining!

Whole trip plan: Two days in London, transportation to the cruise port in Southampton and stopping at Stonehenge on the way, 7-day cruise to Norway, then one day in London before flying back to Dallas.

My in-laws live in Omaha, NE and we live in Dallas, Texas so they decided they wanted to fly with us, so they booked a flight from Omaha to Dallas and then we were going to fly together the next day.

However, when they flew in on August 30th, the day before our flight to London, they started feeling ill and on the 31st they tested positive for Covid so we ended up having to go without them  My husband and I both wore masks and were quarantined from them the day they came to Dallas so we decided to go to London/Norway as we were feeling fine and were not testing positive. I was pretty pissed (still am, to be honest) about them testing positive because we had talked about quarantining two weeks before the trip but they broke their quarantine to do a bunch of grandkids' sporting events and parties so I was not happy, as I had done a LOT of planning for this trip.

Once at the DFW airport, we went to the Capital One lounge for some drinks and I had to plug away at getting all my in-law's stuff canceled. Because they canceled the 3 days before the cruise, I wasn't able to cancel my extra cruise room, but because it was free, it wasn't a huge deal, just meant that my husband and I would have our own rooms for the voyage. I did end up essentially wasting a cruise comp, but nothing I could do about the bad luck.

We had economy tickets on AA that I got through points. It was pretty miserable and I always tell myself that I will upgrade to Business class next time but I somehow always cheap out and the cycle continues lol. It is just *really* hard for me to sleep on red-eye flights, even with sleep aids. The flight was only 6 hrs to London. It would have been 5, but Heathrow has a curfew and they do not allow landing before 6 am so we circled for about 45min-1 hr waiting to land.

[aubreyc1988]

Oh, and here is our itinerary

 

[MommaBear55]

Looking forward to your review, we are doing essentially the same itinerary next spring. We love this cruise, we wanted to do it a second time before the ports close down. Always appreciate hearing what works and what doesn't work. 

[aubreyc1988]

Throughout the review, there will be a mix of color and black-and-white photos. My husband has gotten itno film photography and wanted to share the photos he took while in London. I will try to denote these photos with an asterisk next to them.

 

Here's the Capitol One Lounge Bar area at DFW. It's really the nicest lounge I have been in. I am sure there are nicer (Maybe the Amex Centurion), but I have yet to get access to those. I like the Capital One Lounge, it is perfect for my needs and I get in free with my Venture X CC. AND because of the way DFW terminals are set up, you can access it from any terminal, although you do have to take the shuttle/tram thing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GimmeOcean]

Following.. Sailing on Anthem in Dec. though not as nice an trip/itinerary as this, Norway sounds pretty amazing and I'd love to see Stonehenge.

[aubreyc1988]

Customs through Heathrow was a breeze, had facial recognition, and then we made out way to the Elizabeth line instead of Heathrow Express to Paddington Station, to save some money. Our hotel was about a 10-minute walk from Paddington Station. It would have been closer to go to Bayswater Station, but some of the lines were closed so a 10 min walk it was! 

 

 

We stayed at London House Hotel, which was a pretty basic hotel near Kensington Gardens. It met our needs, was quite small, but clean, and had air conditioning. We paid about 100.00 USD per night, which was a steal if you ask me. I had to go cheap on some of the pre-cruise things to save money for gambling and Norway excursions and the area of this hotel is not a prime location. It wasn't bad, but for tourists, there are much better options if you want to pay more. I don't have a photo of the inside of the rooms, unfortunately, just a video. You can look it up online and the photos are pretty accurate.
We paid 25.00 to check in early and it was worth it to freshen up and have our belongings put away.

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

After checking in at the hotel, we went to Westminster Abbey.

 

Here, I nabbed this great photo of my husband who put his hoodie on over his camera bag and walked around like this, not a care in the world 😛

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[aubreyc1988]

Warning: slightly disgusting post ahead, feel free to skip forward, read at your own risk 😛

 

 

After Westminster Abbey, we decided to pop in for lunch at Yaatra, which has Indian food and was rated pretty highly on Google. We opted to pay a la carte instead of a pre-fixe menu. I got the butter chicken and my husband got some sort of curry. It was very good until it wasn't. Halfway through my butter chicken, I started to feel kind of strange so I stopped eating. After we left, I told my husband I wasn't feeling well in my stomach, but it wasn't so bad I couldn't continue on touring. I thought it was just that I had eaten too much with a combination of being tired and having jet lag. So we got on the tube, and approximately one stop later, I HAD to get off to get to a bathroom. So we get off at Sloane's Square station, and find that the public restrooms are all out of service. So I had to race to this restaurant and beg a hostess to let me use their bathroom. Let's just say I made it, but barely. And then I had to wait 20 minutes to leave the bathroom because some girls were doing their makeup in the bathroom and I know FOR SURE they heard me throwing up in there HAHA. They had to have been waiting to see what I looked like.

After that whole debacle, I felt nearly 100% again. Although, I was pissed that I threw up about 50.00 worth of Indian food. To be honest, I doubt I'll eat it again for a while, I am that scarred. Ok, ok, enough of this disgusting stuff 

Edited September 18, 2023 by aubreyc1988

[aubreyc1988]

The next stop was Tower Bridge. We did the Yeoman Warder tour and I wasn't that impressed. We should have downloaded an audio guide and just did that. I opted to not climb the 200 stairs to the top, to save my feet because I KNEW there would be lots of walking on this trip and I needed to make as many smart choices as I could

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn't visit the Shard as it was under some sort of construction, can't tell from the outside though. I wasn't able to purchase tickets to go to the top. 

 

 

Edited September 18, 2023 by aubreyc1988

[Crazy planning mom]

Love reading your reviews and live blogs.

[aubreyc1988]

 

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After walking around a bit, we decided to nix Tower Bridge for the day and go back to the hotel, find a pub nearby to get some dinner, and call it a early night
 

 

 

I wasn't fully prepared for the cost of food in London. This was a $$ place called The Hayden, where both of us got fish and chips and a cider with a bottle of water and it was 90.00 USD! Oh well, when in London and all that! And it was a nice ambiance and service so that is a positive

[aubreyc1988]

2 minutes ago, Crazy planning mom said:

Love reading your reviews and live blogs.

 

I bought the internet so I COULD have done this one live, but honestly, this itinerary is so "go go go", I am glad I decided to not do it live. I feel like I really couldn't have been detailed and imparted good information for people planning to do this itinerary and also enjoy the cruise myself. 

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, aubreyc1988 said:

I got the butter chicken

I thought we'd have another butterfish thread all over again.

[aubreyc1988]

Just now, Biker19 said:

I thought we'd have another butterfish thread all over again.

oh man, I don't know this reference, something I missed on the boards? 

[aubreyc1988]

The next morning, we got up early to walk around in Kensington Gardens before our timed visit at 10 a.m. to Kensington Palace. We started walking around about 7 a.m., and stopped for breakfast at about 9 a.m. Here are a bunch of photos I took on our walk
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Biker19]

6 minutes ago, aubreyc1988 said:

oh man, I don't know this reference, something I missed on the boards? 

It was even better before the mods intervened.

Edited September 18, 2023 by Biker19

[aubreyc1988]

5 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

 

Oh GOD lol, no I do not go into that great detail HAHA. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 18, 2023 by aubreyc1988

[aubreyc1988]

After the palace, we went to Portobello Market, where I didn't take any photos apparently. My husband probably has some and I'll add them later. Probably the jetlag or something haha. I know we ate some pastries from some shops there and a delish cookie.

We then went to the National Gallery to look at some artwork, which was fantastic. I love that is free to the public as well! After the gallery, we walked around Covent Garden, and Chinatown, bought some stuff, and decided to have some drinks at a pub

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

Although I've eaten at several of Gordan Ramsay restaurants in Vegas, I had to try one of his London places. I chose Heddon Street Kitchen because it was low key and I didn't want to go all the way back to my hotel to change into nicer clothes to go to The Savoy or something

 

 

We sat at this lounge area until our table was ready, I had a cider of course. 

 

 

I was weird and ordered some sides as appetizers

 

 

 

Mac and Cheese AMAZING. Mashed potatoes, meh. I will fight Gordon on this, but I love a lumpy mash.

 

 

 

 

I ordered the pork belly, where the skin was SO crispy it was inedible. Not sure if it's always supposed to be like that, but it was just OK at best

 

TJ picked better this time around

The whole meal ended up being around 90.00, which considering what the local pub cost me the night before, I was surprised. But honestly not impressed but did check it off the bucket list. I'd def order the mac and cheese again though. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[clochette]

loving all of your pictures thank you for sharing your trip, and hope you felt better after that tough first day

[aubreyc1988]

We booked a private transfer to Stonehenge and to the cruiseport through https://londoncruise-transfers.com

I have no complaints, our driver was great! Initially, we booked this Mercedes 6 seater for the four of us so that we would have plenty of room, but since my inlaws canceled it was super roomy. So I asked on the cruise roll call if anyone wanted to join us (since there was a rail strike going on in London, transportation was a little unreliable) and we had a nice solo cruiser who joined us. I would 10/10 do a transfer+tour with this company again. The cost was 500.00 for the whole van. It took us 1.5 hrs to get to Stonehenge, then the driver waits for you for two hours at Stonehenge (you could also have selected Windsor Castle) and then takes you to the port (another hour). Honestly, it's a steal and a super comfortable ride.

 

 

We loved Stonehenge. We opted to walk to the site, which was a 30-minute scenic walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[aubreyc1988]

 

 

 

 

 

I just HAD to, you know? LOL 

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

It was such a beautiful perfect day to visit, and not very crowded. They are more majestic in person! Many people told me this was a waste of time, even for tourists, but I disagree. Yes, it essentially is large rocks in the middle of nowhere but they are OLD and historic and the scenery is beautiful! They have a lot of other things to see and do at the Visitor Center as well. It's the PERFECT add on before heading to the cruise port from London. 

 

 

 

 

 

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[GimmeOcean]

25 minutes ago, aubreyc1988 said:

 

I just HAD to, you know? LOL 

 

 

 

🤣